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7.10.2010

Honey Lavender Ice Cream

July 14th, Bastille Day in France. You celebrate Bastille day, right?

Bastille Day, the French national holiday, commemorates the storming of the Bastille (a prison), which took place on 14 July 1789 and marked the beginning of the French Revolution. In case you didn't know.

We always celebrate Bastille Day because it's an excuse to eat French food. Wouldn't you know that the lavender in my garden just happens to be in full bloom. Soooo, I'm taking our celebration and little south to the Provence region and making lavender ice cream and other lavender delights.

This honey lavender ice cream is seriously divine.

A thank you to Tiffany for thinking about my blog and buying me these delicious candied violet's while touring France. Love you.

Lavender in full bloom. Notice upper right hand corner a honey bee.

Simple, simple recipe. Of course I'm using local ingredients. Local Cox honey from the Cache Valley area of Utah, local Winder Dairy products, lavender from my back yard, eggs, sugar and a pinch of salt.

If you don't have fresh lavender, then you can use dried lavender blossoms. Just make sure they are for culinary use. I'll repeat that...make sure they are for culinary use!!!!! You DO NOT want to use lavender that is for crafts or making your house smell good. Remember CULINARY USE ONLY.

In a small sauce pan, pour in honey and 2 tablespoons of the lavender blossoms.

Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium heat.

Set aside and allow the honey and lavender to steep for 1 hour.

Pour the whipping cream into a large bowl.

Fit the bowl with a mesh strainer.

Pour the honey, lavender mixture (that has steeped for 1 hour) into the cream. Set aside.

Pour the milk into a medium size saucepan.

Add sugar and salt.

Bring to a simmer.

In a small bowl, whisk egg yolks.

Ladle the warmed milk mixture slowly into the beaten egg yolks.

Beat well after each addition.

Repeat 5 or 6 times. Enough to warm the egg yolks so you don't turn them into scrambled egg yolks.

Slowly add the egg milk mixture back into the warmed milk.

Stir with a heat proof rubber spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir. You could use a wooden spoon. I don't like to use a wire whip because it makes the mixture to foamy and airy. I want my ice cream smooth and creamy.

Cook the mixture until slightly thickened. You can test the mixture by drawing your finger across the spatula. It should leave a path.

Pour the thickened mixture through a stainer into the cream, honey, lavender mixture.

It's a good idea to stain the custard because sometimes you still get a bit of the egg yolks that like to cook and you definitely don't want to bit into cooked egg yolks when licking your ice cream cone.

Stir the cream mixture and cooked custard together.

Add two more tablespoons of the lavender blossoms to this mixture.

Sir to combine. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Remember my small ice cream maker? This works great because this recipe only makes 1 1/2 quarts of ice cream. It's best to keep the bowl of the ice cream maker in the freezer so it's ready to go when you need it. It really works best if it has been in the freezer for a good 24 hours.

Place a wire strainer or the frozen ice cream maker bowl.

Pour the mixture through the strainer to strain out the lavender blossoms.

Press down on the blossoms to remove all liquids.

Turn on the ice cream maker.

It takes about 25-30 minutes to freeze.

Your ice cream maker won't freeze the ice cream as well as the old fashioned ice and rock salt machines. Remember! If you let the ice cream maker continue to run longer than 30 minutes, the ice cream will begin to melt again. So just turn it off and finish freezing in the freezer.

Remove the ice cream from the bowl. Scoop into a container then freeze for a few hours or overnight. I just pray that no one is around when the ice cream is finished so that I can lick the dasher myself and scrape any remaining ice cream out of the bowl.

There is no doubt about it. There is a subtle floral like flavor in the ice cream. HELLO! You just put flowers in it.

A while back my daughter was having a tea party with her daughter, Emi. Emi asked her mom how the tea was. Her mom said, "It's delicous". Emi said, "It's because I put divine in it". (I know - so dang cute)

This ice cream definitely has "divine" in it. The subtle flavors of honey and lavender are rich and delicious.

Honey Lavender Ice Cream½ cup good-flavored honey¼ cup fresh or dried lavender flowers1 ½ cups whole milk¼ cup sugarPinch of salt1 ½ cups heavy cream5 large egg yolksHeat the honey and 2 tablespoons of the lavender in a small saucepan. Once warm, remove from the heat and set aside to steep at room temperature for 1 hour.Warm the milk, sugar and salt in a medium saucepan. Pour the cream into a large bowl and set a mesh strainer on top. Pour the lavender-infused honey into the cream through the strainer, pressing on the lavender flowers to extract as much flavor as possible, then discard the lavender and set the strainer back over the cream.In a separate medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warm egg yolks back into the saucepan.Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula. Pour the custard through the strainer and stir it into the cream. Add remaining 2 tablespoons of lavender flowers and stir. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.Before churning the mixture strain again pressing on the lavender flowers to extract their flavor. Freeze the mixture in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.Print recipe

Honey Lavender Ice Cream would make the French proud.

I think it's comparable to the ice cream at Berthillon on Ile Saint-Louis. Not exact, but close. So close.

Thank you, Laurie. This ice cream is so rich. I couldn't stay away from it. I love the flavors of Lavender. I just bought a lavender cookbook and I'd love to post ALL the recipe, but that might be lavender overkill???

My good friend just made a batch of this by my request. My favorite ice cream ever, is this honey lavender ice cream that I could get at the South Pasadena farmers market in California. This came very close, and it was absolutely amazing!! I'm going to buy an ice cream maker just so that i can make it on my own another time. In the end, I will probably put a little less honey, but amazing recipe nonetheless. Thank you!! :)

Hi, I'm not a huge fan of lavender, but I'll try this using lemon thyme... and top the finished ice cream with raspberries and a drizzle of honey. Janet, I just came across your site today. Wonderful recipes. Thank you for sharing!

This is one delicious ice cream recipe and the photos are great you also have a skill on photography aside from making delicious ice cream. Thanks for sharing this recipe and hope I can read more recipes from you.

Thanks you, Chris, for such a kind comment. This IS fabulous ice cream and I'm most grateful for the photography compliment. I shot these photo's when I barely knew how to turn on a camera. I'd point, shoot, then pray for success. Have a great day.

I just bought an ice cream maker and am excited to try this recipe. I just wondered, though, if the amount of lavender you use would be different if you used the dried instead of fresh (like with most herbs). I'd like to try this and don't have any lavender. I did find some dried at Marshall's. BTW, I made the the Sticky Coconut Chicken today and WOW, it was wonderful! I absolutely love this site! Thanks! I'm beginning to feel like a gourmet chef!Fun!

I generally use less dried herbs. Try using 2 tablespoons of dried herbs for this recipe. When using dried herbs, just make sure they are for culinary use and not potpourri. Many of the craft stores carry lavender that is scented with perfumes and shouldn't be used for cooking.

I'm so thrilled you made the sticky chicken. It's such and easy "go to" meal. thanks for commenting.

I just made a batch of your recipe. Only I doubled it. I made one of lavender and one with rose petals. Fantastic. wow... thank you so much for posting your creative work and obvious talent! KUDOS to ya. Frany

hello, I just made a batch of your recipe. Only I doubled it. One for lavender and one with rose petals. amazing!!! thank you sooo much for posting what is an obvious talent and creativity. (the recipe n added bonus pics). Kudos to ya! Frany